Description

The field of Bollywood studies has remained predominantly critical, theoretical and historical in focus. This book brings together qualitative and quantitative approaches to tackle empirical questions focusing on the relationship between soft power, hybridity, cinematic texts, and audiences.

Adopting a critical-transcultural framework that examines the complex power relations that are manifested through globalized production and consumption practices, the book approaches the study of popular Hindi cinema from three broad perspectives: transcultural production contexts, content trends, and audiences. It firstly outlines the theoretical issues relevant to the spread of popular Indian cinema and emergence of India’s growing soft power. The book goes on to report on a series of quantitative studies that examine the patterns of geographical, cultural, political, infrastructural, and artistic power dynamics at work within the highest-grossing popular Hindi films over a 61-year period since independence. Finally, an additional set of studies are presented that quantitatively examine Indian and North American audience consumption practices.

The book illuminates issues related to the actualization and maintenance of cinematic soft power dynamics, highlighting Bollywood’s increasing integration into and subsumption by globalized practices that are fundamentally altering India’s cinematic landscape and, thus, its unique soft power potential. It is of interest to academics working in Film Studies, Globalisation Studies, and International Relations.

Table of Contents

Foreword Daya Thussu Introduction: Bollywood and Globalization: Researching Popular Hindi Cinema through the Lens of Film Flows David J. Schaefer and Kavita Karan Part 1: Transcultural Contexts and Soft Power 1. The big stick behind "soft power"? The case of Indian films in international markets Sunitha Chitrapu 2. Bollywood at Large: Who is watching Bollywood films? Anjali Gera Roy 3. Transnational Elements In Hong Kong And Hindi Film Industries: A Comparative Analysis Suruchi Mazumdar Part 2: Cinematic Content and Soft Power 4. Box Office and "Bollywood": An Analysis of Soft Power Content in Popular Hindi Cinema David J. Schaefer 5. Cinematic Soft Power and Contraflows: The Prevalence of South Asian Culture and Art in Popular Hindi Cinema David J. Schaefer, Kavita Karan, Amar Donepudi, and Namrata Bansal 6. The Impact of Globalization on Bollywood Cinema’s Depictions of Violence, Sexuality, Crime, Social vice and Romance David J. Schaefer and Kavita Karan 7. The Changing Face of Indian Women in the Era of Global Bollywood Divya Anujan, David J. Schaefer, and Kavita Karan Part 3: Cinematic Soft Power and Audiences 8. Bollywood Cinema and Contemporary Audiences: Surveying Viewer Perceptions and Practices David J. Schaefer and Kavita Karan 9. Cultural connections in a globalized orld: The power of Bollywood in the United States Kavita Karan 10. Emotional Arousal and Bollywood: Assessing Cortical Activation for Violent, Sexual, and Romantic Content in Popular Hindi Cinema David J. Schaefer, Joseph Pathakamuri, Stephen Sammut, and Kavita Karan

About the Editors

David J. Schaefer is Professor of the Department of Communication Arts at Franciscan University of Steubenville, USA. He has published numerous book chapters and journal articles on film and digital media and is a member of the Asian Media Information and Communication and International Communication Association.

Kavita Karan is an Associate Professor at the School of Journalism at the Southern Illinois University, USA. Her edited and co-edited books include Cyber Communities in Rural Asia: A Study of Seven Asian Countries, Commercializing Women: Images of Asian Women in the Media, Singapore General Elections 2001: Study of the Media, Politics and Public and Information Policies in Asia: Development of Indicators.

Most VitalSource eBooks are available in a reflowable EPUB format which allows you to resize text to suit you and enables other accessibility features. Where the content of the eBook requires a specific layout, or contains maths or other special characters, the eBook will be available in PDF (PBK) format, which cannot be reflowed. For both formats the functionality available will depend on how you access the ebook (via Bookshelf Online in your browser or via the Bookshelf app on your PC or mobile device).

Multiple eBook Formats

An eBook version of this title already exists in your shopping cart. If you would like to replace it with a different purchasing option please remove the current eBook option from your cart.